Posts Tagged ‘students’

Discovery Education, in partnership with CDWG, has just released a series of videos, entitled Web 2.0 Conquering Technophobia. Presented by the DEN gurus, Hall Davidson and Steve Dembo, these videos are short, easy to use and contain “just-in-time” information. Definitely worth a view.

Change is all around us. In the words of Karl Fisch, Shift Happens! (see the latest Did You Know video on YouTube. But how do we respond to teachers who grapple with technology change in the classroom?

On the ISTE Connects Blog this morning, I found a great post about Dennis Baron’s new book A Better Pencil. Here’s an excerpt of the post:

His new book takes a look at people’s fear of computers having a negative impact on various aspects of human interaction, including common complaints that instant messaging (IM) is ruining the English language and that Facebook is causing us to be anti-social. Baron argues that we don’t need to be concerned. He feels computers are improving writing and actually making us more social. And what I found to be most interesting is his view that this fear of ‘changing technology’ is nothing new.

And it’s true…it is nothing new. In the final phase of my student teaching, my cooperating teacher used the Gestetner printer and refused to use the photocopier. I preferred using Mechanical pencils in University vs. the standard HB. I was able to use a calculator in my grade 12 diploma exam…this first year it was allowed (1985). Some teachers are petrified of using the new SMARTBoard in their class and prefer to use the overhead and project it on their SMARTBoard instead.

Megan Dolman, the author of the post on ISTE Connects provides us with some great advice for working these hesitant teachers:

When you come up against people that are hesitant to implement technology it may be a good idea to remember what Baron is saying: this fear of new communication tools is as old as the pencil. Reassure them that just as the telephone didn’t lessen the need or desire for face-to-face conversations, Facebook and other social media won’t either!

Notebook interactive viewer makes it easy to share the digital content and lessons you create with Notebook software. The viewer allows you to exchange Notebook files with any of your colleagues, even if they don’t have access to the full version of Notebook software. You can also view your content created in Notebook software on any computer and present the material using any brand of interactive whiteboard.

There is an open license for Notebook interactive viewer, which means the software can be installed on every computer in your school. The download is simple and can be done on individual computers, or the software can be installed on your school network.

The Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology is a peer-reviewed journal that welcomes papers on all aspects of educational technology and learning. Topics may include, but are not limited to: learning theory and technology, cognition and technology, instructional design theory and application, online learning, computer applications in education, simulations and gaming, and other aspects of the use of technology in the learning process. Manuscripts may be submitted either in English or in French.

Google posted an update about its eye tracking usability studies today. Most of the results are not exactly groundbreaking. It is, for example, no surprise that most users only scan the first couple of search results. Indeed, most Google users don’t seem to scan much further than the second result. There are, however, some interesting nuggets of information in this post about how Google uses this data to study every aspect of its search results page. Courtesy of ReadWriteWeb blog.

In a recent article in edutopia online called Disrupting Class: Student-Centric Education Is the Future , the authors (Clayton M. Christensen and Michael B. Horn) lay out the argument that only those technologies that support the student-centric classroom will have any impact on changing education for the better. They contrast the teacher-centric classroom, which we are all very familiar with, with a model of a classroom which supports multiple learning styles or a universal design for learning (UDL)approach.

How many of us have our students or our own kids teach us about technology?

Reading a great article in the Toronto Star this morning, Tech-savvy teens ‘adopt’ teachers: Students help instructors navigate computer techniques, blogging, multimedia. It talks about how students in a Toronto school are mentoring teachers in their use of technology. It reminds me of the conversation that occurred during the David Warlick PD day in March 2009, where several conference participants weighed in on this topic. Here’s Warlick’s Knitter thread from that day.

Many school districts have adopted the SWAT approach to technology integration. SWAT refers to “Students Willing to Assist with Technology.” A simple google search provides many examples of SWAT Teams in schools. I first read the concept of SWAT in an ASCD’s Educational Leadership, called “Going to One-to-One” by Mark Warschauer. When talking with schools, teachers and admin get excited about this idea, but it can be a challenge to implement.